Oh happy day! The time has finally come to reveal our recent front porch makeover that we completed as part of the 48-Hour Challenge with Better Homes & Gardens and Home Depot. The task? Turn our snore of a front porch into a bellissimo outdoor space for relaxing with a $500 gift card to Home Depot and our wits. Here’s a reminder of the booooooring blank slate of a before that we were working with:

But lets not dwell on the past. It’s time for the after pictures!

Our big porch makeover project can be broken down into four major categories: painting, building, sewing, and hanging. First we painted the old dark-planked porch with tan and cream stripes for an instant face lift (we really wanted our new “outside room” to feel light and airy to match more of what we have going on inside). We even used an extra bit of cream paint to lighten up our old black square planters (we actually got them at Home Depot right before the challenge and painted them black- d’oh!).

Then we assembled our glider bench and made a totally workable little side table with a large planter and a terra cotta saucer that we sealed, painted and turned into a tabletop. Now there’s a spot for a book, a little drinky-drink, or even a plate full of bbq.

We also purchased a sweet green paisley lounge chair cushion… only to take a scissors to it. Cutting it in half and resewing each piece back up created two all-weather floor pillows. And you know what floor pillows mean to Burger, right?

A perfect place to unwind after a hard day of chasing bugs. Look at the sheer bliss on his little dog face. He LOVES his new puppy lounge and sits staring at the front door in the living room until we let him out to play- er, bask.

You might notice the leash on Burger in the pic (although I don’t know how you could see anything at all beyond his adorable face). Well, we couldn’t very well allow our precious pooch to roam free like we do in the fenced-in backyard, so we devised a way for him to have full range of the porch without being able to take off after a squirrel and dash into the road. For just $2 we snagged a hook and a carabiner which we used to create a little leash-holding-apparatus for added peace of mind. And he doesn’t seem to mind a bit! Safety note: we use an extra long leash so Burger has full range of the porch and can even go down the stairs and into the yard (so he can’t hang off and get strangled). We also never leave him outside unsupervised (we like to have him on his leash even when we’re out there in case he gets spooked and bolts for the street). We do not advise recreating this hook setup if you plan to leave your pet unattended at any time!

Maybe it’s because we also made a small food and water station for him with a piece of wood, some wood glue, and four molding pieces that we reimagined as legs. Painting it green made it fit right in, and Burger loves grabbing a snack or a sip whenever the mood strikes. What more could a dog want?

We also wanted to add more greenery and texture without breaking the bank. Two feathery hanging ferns (for just $9 a pop) created even more of the “outdoor room” effect by serving as abstract dividers so you feel enveloped on the front porch, even though they don’t really obscure any of the view.

We also snagged a tan doormat that works well with the tone on tone stripes that we painted as well as our cheery red door.

The mat and the bench coincidentally had extremely similar coloring, which injects a nice bit of balance and cohesion to the whole space (gotta love happy accidents).

We also seized the opportunity to bring in more green and cream planters to flank the bench and a few plush outdoor pillows for that sit-and-stay-a-while vibe. Oh and see that pillow with the cream and green medallion detail? That baby was just $6 on clearance. Gotta love Home Depot!

For a bit of interest and ambiance (and because we still had a few bucks burning a hole in our pocket) we created hanging candle holders with inexpensive bulb covers from the lighting department and some wire (we were all about trolling every aisle for ideas).

We intentionally picked thick durable ribbed glass so they’ll hold up outside (we’ve already had a few torrential rains and we’re happy to report that they’re doing just fine).

Here they are doing their thing in the dark. Ooooh. Ahhh.

As the sun sets slowly and the stars come out, so ends the big porch project reveal. Of course we’ll be back with step-by-step tutorials for every project (from the pooch food & water station to our striped porch painting process). Stay tuned…

But wait! There’s still the budget to attend to. Here’s an approximated breakdown for ya:

Glider Bench: $200

Porch & Floor Paint: $45

Planter-Turned-Side-Table: $40

Other Planters & Plants To Flank Bench: $80

Bench Pillows: two for $25

Lounge Cushion Converted To Two Floor Pillows: $25

Dog Feeding Station: $10

Burger’s Leash Hook: $2

Hanging Candle Holders: three for $20

Hanging Ferns: two for $18

Doormat: $15

Misc. Supplies (paint brushes, hanging hooks, etc): $18

Grand Total: $498

Words can’t even express how happy we feel every time we step out the front door (which has been happening quite a lot these days, rain or shine). Thanks so much to Home Depot and BHG for this amazing challenge. Air kisses all around!

Oh and don’t forget to head over to BHG.com to check out our reveal pics and details as well as the fabulous transformations that the other four challengers drummed up!

127 Comments

You guys did an AWESOME job. I love it. My patio is really small but I have been thinking about doing that striped floor paint ever since you previewed it. And the ferns really make it look welcoming. You really stretched that $500. Wonderful:)

The purple flowering plant in the striped pot to the right of the bench is called a “Veronica” while the smaller leafy plant on the other side is called a “hosta” and the bigger yellow flowering plant in the green and white pot is a “Sweet Broom.” And of course, we found all of them at Home Depot. Hope it helps!

My favorites are the striped floor, the hanging candle holders and that gorgeous planter–the white one and green one with the yellow plant. Yum. It all looks fabulous. *sigh* I SOOO wish I had a front porch.

Nice work Team YHL! I love the stripes and the hanging globes are my favorite touch!

I did a post last night using your red front door as my inspiration. I noticed you have a new door knocker, can I see it up close? I am looking for something modern but not too modern and if I were to guess….I’d like what you have!

WOW! I’ve been enjoying the little morsels of info you guys have been revealing, but the final look is fabulous!Love the pic from the side of the house – you can really appreciate the change with the new colors, greenery and the genius (!) bulb covers turned lighting – can’t wait for that how to ’cause I have a couple of rather large trees in the backyard that would look awesome with those lovelies hanging from them! And I think I can totally handle the planter-turned-side-table project. Kudos!

wow!!! You two are amazing!!!! I cut out magazine pictures of what I WANT to do….and never seem to get around to doing any of it! love your house!!!!! I grew up in Virginia and actually went to Radford, so it is fun to see that style of house again!

The winner is decided solely by reader voting, which begins on Friday, May 1st. The cool thing is that people can vote every day if they’d like for the full length of the contest, so hopefully we’ll get some love. Fingers crossed…

Stay tuned for more voting info once it goes live over on BHG.com next Friday!

Perfect porch!! I love all the green, white and black with ur red door. That is where i would go vacationing, if I could!! Ahh, I can dream rt.
Great job guys! I can’t wait for tutorials for that little side table.

We were waiting for someone to notice that we never did the twine mobiles that we mentioned a while back! We actually failed miserably when we attempted that project (but we took lots of pics to share in a future post) so we came up with the light cover candle holder idea in the final hour instead! We actually LOVE how those turned out so I guess everything happens for a reason… but you won’t believe the fiasco of the twine mobile project. Stay tuned!

All the projects we took on were super easy weekend ones (like painting the stripes, making the food & water station, converting the lounge cushion to floor pillows for Burger, making the hanging candle holders and creating a side table from a planter). The glider-bench is straight from Home Depot’s outdoor furniture section (although John did have to assemble it with an allen wrench). Hope it helps!

About

Hey, we're Sherry & John. This is where we chronicled 7 years of our lives as we fixed up 3 homes, had 2 children, became accidental authors and product designers, and shared our adventures (and misadventures) with the world. Now it's a time capsule of sorts, complete with nearly 3,000 posts, projects, and updates.